Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

New heart disease risk score outperforms existing test

An independent external validation of QRISK® - a new score for predicting a person's risk of heart disease - has shown that it performs better than the existing test and should be recommended for use in the United Kingdom by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

9 Jul 2009

Discovery of key gene for bone development that when mutated lead to dwarfism

Scientists have just discovered the gene behind Recessive Omodysplasia, a rare skeletal disease characterised by short-limbed dwarfism and craniofacial anomalies.

9 Jul 2009

Health reformers shy from proposals that would limit treatment options

In a story headlined 'In Retooled Health-Care System, Who Will Say No?' the Washington Post reports: "Although Obama and his advisers have held up providers' spending patterns as the crux of the crisis, proposals in Washington go only so far in addressing the thorniest questions about who gets what care."

8 Jul 2009

Costliest Medicare markets in Florida, New York, California

U.S. News & World Report examines cost, frequency, and outcomes studies on Medicare patients from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice : "The Dartmouth research is particularly relevant to older Americans because it is based to a large extent on Medicare data, involving patients ages 65 and older.

8 Jul 2009

ECOSOC's agenda should include noncommunicable disease threat in developing countries

"[E]xplicit indicators to measure progress in reducing heart diseases, stroke, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases" are missing from the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) agenda as it meets in Geneva this week "to focus on implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to public health," and the "omission needs to be urgently addressed if the intent is to have a major impact on reducing poverty by 2015," Ala Alwan, WHO's assistant director-general for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health; George Alleyne, PAHO's director emeritus; and Martin Silink, president of the International Diabetes Federation write in an opinion piece in the Hindu.

8 Jul 2009

Multaq approved for atrial fibrillation by FDA

Sanofi-aventis announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Multaq (dronedarone) 400 mg Tablets. Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) or atrial flutter (AFL) soon will have a new treatment option to help improve current management of their disease. Multaq is the first drug approved in the United States that has shown a clinical benefit to reduce cardiovascular hospitalization in patients with AF/AFL.

7 Jul 2009

Family Research Council President says NIH stem cell guidelines ethically irresponsible

Today, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins responded to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines implementing President Obama's executive order for federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research (ESCR). President Obama's order and the NIH guidelines remove life-protecting limits on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

7 Jul 2009

Alzheimer's patients fight for quicker Medicare coverage

NPR reports on the struggle of Alzheimer's patients who don't have health insurance trying to find ways to pay for their care and lobby for greater protections for themselves.

7 Jul 2009

U.S., Russia to cooperate on health goals

The White House announced on Monday that the U.S. and Russia have signed on to a "memo of understanding" to cooperate on several public health and medical science projects, ModernHealthcare.com reports.

7 Jul 2009

Developed countries must address global warming to prevent disease, hunger in developing world

Pollution from the world's wealthiest countries is spreading disease and hunger in developing countries, according to a new Oxfam International report, which calls on developed countries to address global warming when G8 leaders meet in Italy, the Globe and Mail reports.

7 Jul 2009

Treatment blood pressure targets for hypertension

Aiming for lower than standard blood pressure targets offers no known clinical benefit, according to a Cochrane Review. In a systematic review of the evidence, researchers found that using antihypertensive drugs to reduce blood pressure below the 140/90 mm Hg standard was not associated with any reduction in death rates or serious morbidity.

7 Jul 2009

Combining two common medical tests provides new way to screen for serious kidney disease

The combination of two common medical tests can improve a doctor's ability to predict which patients will develop serious kidney disease, a research team led by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) reports in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

7 Jul 2009

Identification of cholesterol regulating genes by targeted RNAi-screening

Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the University of Heidelberg, Germany, have come a step closer to understanding how cholesterol levels are regulated. In a study published today in the journal Cell Metabolism, the researchers identified 20 genes that are involved in this process. Besides giving scientists a better idea of where to look to uncover the mechanisms that ensure cholesterol balance is maintained, the discovery could lead to new treatments for cholesterol-related diseases.

7 Jul 2009

Heart medication errors too frequent in children

Infants and young children treated with heart drugs get the wrong dose or end up on the wrong end of medication errors more often than older children, according to research led by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center to be published July 6 in Pediatrics.

7 Jul 2009

Tiny heart catheter pump with air propulsion

A tiny heart catheter pump which supports the human heart in critical conditions while pumping has been developed at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna).

7 Jul 2009

New strategies to improve treatment and prevent heart failure in children

Structural cardiovascular abnormalities present at birth are the leading cause of heart failure in children. Nearly half a million children in the United States have structural heart problems ranging in severity from relatively simple issues, such as small holes between chambers of the heart, to very severe malformations, including complete absence of one or more chambers or valves.

7 Jul 2009

For America's aged, surgery at any price?

When doctors decide whether or not to go ahead with an expensive surgery, "age is no longer the deciding factor, even for invasive treatment such as open-heart surgery," The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

7 Jul 2009

The European experience: The pluses and minuses of government-run health care

As President Barack Obama pushes to overhaul health care, many look to Europe for examples of government-run health care.

7 Jul 2009

Communicable disease epidemics in developing world not being adequately addressed, IFRC says

The "crippling" and "growing burden" of communicable diseases such as dengue fever, polio, or meningitis is not being sufficiently addressed in developing countries, according to "The Epidemic Divide," a report released Monday by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), AFP/Google.com reports. According to the report, resources to deal with existing epidemics are "scarce."

7 Jul 2009

Glutamic acid linked to lower blood pressure

Glutamic acid may be one of the components responsible for the lower blood pressures of people with vegetable-rich diets, according to a study published today in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Glutamic acid is a major component of protein; vegetable protein contains higher levels of glutamic acid than animal protein.

7 Jul 2009